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Ballmer Blames Pirates for Vista’s Poor Showing?

February 20, 2007 at 06:00 | Print This Post Print This Post

According to Nick Farrell, Steve Ballmer is crediting software pirates for at least some of the limpness of Vista’s sales activity. Nick doesn’t have all the details in his post, so one can’t really judge for oneself. But I was struck by the odd juxtaposition between this post and PC World’s online cover story today, “The Most Annoying Things About Windows Vista”, which begins with a piece explaining why there’s just no good reason to buy the most crippled version of Vista.


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4 Responses to “Ballmer Blames Pirates for Vista’s Poor Showing?”


  1. Mark Evans (5 comments.)
    February 20th, 2007 at 07:23

    It is pretty interesting that Microsoft is already making excuses, and Vista has been out for less than a month. Other than new computer sales, this puppy isn’t going to fly. If there’s an OS excitement void, does it cause people to focus more on alternatives such as Mac and Linux?


  2. Rob Hyndman (321 comments.)
    February 20th, 2007 at 07:50

    It certainly gives them more reason to look in that direction, doesn’t it? Buzz is as buzz does. And Vista doesn’t have it.


  3. n00b
    February 20th, 2007 at 12:11

    What I find the most interesting is the blog swarm around this “news” item which seems to have only the fucking Inquirer as its source. I guess no real news organizations would have interest in reporting this news if it were true — they just somehow managed to get out-scooped by a guy at the Inquirer.

    Hilarious.

    Not as interesting to me is that everybody didn’t run out and buy Vista right away, or that a lot of people said that they wouldn’t upgrade. Mainly because I remember the exact same thing happening when XP came out (”I’ll get it when you pry Win 2K out of my dead fingzors!”). How’d that turn out?


  4. Rob Hyndman (321 comments.)
    February 20th, 2007 at 12:20

    Good point, n00b - and the reason I was cautious to put it the way I did. A real Web 2.0 pile-on. And a good example of how MS just can’t do anything right in the eyes of many.